Make Mine Milk

I used to love milk, and I suspect, the truth be known, I still do.  But sometime in my junior or senior year of high school (1969 or 1970), I became lactose intolerant.  The physical effects of lactose intolerance are not very pleasant. So, I stopped drinking milk.  But I was able to continue consuming other milk containing products: pudding, ice cream, cottage cheese, cheese, yogurt.

As the years progressed, the limitations on what I could comfortably consume decreased.  The household in which I grew up considered ice cream a primary, major and necessary food group.  It was not unusual for there to be 4 or 5 different flavors of ice cream in the freezer at my house. Sometime in the late 1990's, ice cream started triggering the lactose intolerance symptoms.  After that, cottage cheese started causing me problems. I can still tolerate cheese, yogurt and pudding.

So, I do not usually buy milk. I keep powdered milk on hand, so I can constitute milk for cooking as needed.  This time of year, I do buy milk, for cooking, and for the outside kitties, so I can give them something warm on the freezing cold days.  This year, the outside kitties have not always consumed the milk offered. I give sparse amounts to the inside kitties, and it usually disappears, but not always. 

Milk is really a good food.  I just can not tolerate it.

One Squeaky Kitty

Taki has been very vocal about wanting milk while she has been weaning herself off being dropper fed with milk. Not every day does she want milk.  And, of course, because I am more available on weekends, she asks during the days as well in the evenings.

Tonight there was a new behavior. Taki did not directly ask for help. She sat with me in the computer room, and rolled around, played at chewing on herself, and otherwise self groomed, occasionally issuing a squeak. But she did not approach me to ask for milk.  Finally, I decided to offer her some milk.

Lately, I have been mixing up 6 tsps of milk.  She drinks all but a smidgen. I began to wonder if she was leaving the last bit for "just in case." Tonight I made up 8 tsps of milk, and she drank about 6 tsps.

I have this vision of a 15 year old cat who occasionally squeaks for milk, and is dropper fed 6 tsps.